This invention relates generally to remote control systems and, more particularly, to systems and methods for optimizing memory usage in a universal controlling device.
Manufacturers typically provide a remote control with an appliance and, as such, different appliance types of different manufacturers are often commanded with different remote controls. To minimize the number of individual remote controls a user requires, universal controlling devices have been developed. In this regard, universal controlling devices having a library of command codes for commanding various functional operations of various types of appliances of various manufacturers are well known. By way of example only, universal controlling devices are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,959,810, 5,255,313, 5,552,917, and 7,907,222, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The command codes for controlling functional operations of appliances of various types and various manufacturers, i.e., a library or set of command codes, are often pre-stored in the memory of the universal controlling device. The user then interacts with the universal controlling device to identify to the universal controlling device which appliance(s) the user desires to control, i.e., the user manually enters an appliance or brand code, usually obtained from a tabulation in a printed user manual or the like, into the universal controlling device and the universal controlling uses that user provided identity information to access those preprogrammed codes that are appropriate for controlling functional operations of the identified appliance(s). In this regard, examples of known methods for performing an initial setup of a universal controlling device may be found in, for example, the above mentioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,959,810 and 7,907,222 as well as U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,906, entitled “Method for Selecting a Remote Control Command Set,” and U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,359 entitled “Universal Remote Control Unit with Model Identification Capability,” each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. An additional system and method for setting up a universal remote control is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,248.